Sharks in the water: What Floridians need to know for 4th of July weekend

Bailey LeFever

Friday

Jul 5, 2019 at 11:15 AMJul 5, 2019 at 11:21 AM

There could be sharks in the water. Here's what Floridians need to know for 4th of July weekend

JUPITER — The shark sightings, survival stories and in one case, tragedy, has populated the news in the past month, renewing fear of the underwater predators in the Atlantic Ocean.

A 21-year-old college student was killed June 26 when she was snorkeling with her family near Rose Island in the Bahamas. She was surrounded by three sharks and attacked.

Three nonfatal attacks in North Carolina happened in June. All were unprovoked and nonfatal.

Only three shark attacks were reported in the state in 2018, according to the International Shark Attack File, a scientific database of shark attacks housed at the Florida Museum of Natural History.

A video taken Monday in Daytona Beach showed sharks swimming just a few feet away from a group in the water.

Last week in New Smyrna Beach, a man sent up a drone to get a few photos of his kids playing in the ocean when he saw a shark swimming nearby. A few days later, an 18-year-old surfer was bitten on the foot by a shark on the same beach. He had minor lacerations.

As the Fourth of July holiday arrives, is there more cause for concern when wading into waters off Juno Beach, Palm Beach, Lake Worth Beach or Delray Beach this weekend?

The answer, like the water that sharks populate, is murky.

The good news — despite the recent reports, shark bites are not on the rise this year.

“Right now, here in Florida things are pretty similar to how they’ve been in the past, Dr. Stephen Kajura, a professor in Florida Atlantic University’s Department of Biological Sciences. Some shark populations are doing better, while many are not.

Lifeguards off Juno beach say they haven’t seen one in years. And shark attacks are more a risk for surfers in the winter months, said Julia Leo, ocean rescue supervisor at Juno Beach.

But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t shark spottings. Jon Cooper of Westin and his two children saw a fin in the water off South Beach Pavillion in Boca Raton on Wednesday morning.

“I was a little scared cause I wasn’t sure if it was a shark,” said 10-year-old Finley Cooper.

The trio ran up after they saw what could have been a shark, Cooper said. Luckily, the family was already preparing to head off the beach for some lunch.

READ: Palm Beach Gardens teen surfer gets a shark scar and a story to tell

Shark bites aren’t happening more often in Florida than in years past. Though the Sunshine State accounts for 25 percent of worldwide shark bites, 2018′s 16 unprovoked shark attacks was lower than the most recent five-year annual average of 30 incidents, according to the Florida Museum International Shark Attack File. Only one shark attack was reported in Palm Beach County.

In Florida, most attacks come from blacktip sharks, which are a little under 5 feet long and weigh about 40 pounds. If they do bite a swimmer, it is usually because they had mistaken a human for a fish.

The bad news — as ocean waters continue to warm, sharks are populating more spots, Kajura said, warning beachgoers that they are migrating up to Long Island, N.Y. and places they haven’t traditionally traveled.

“Whereas people went to the beach in New York and never thought about sharks before cause there were just little sharks out there,” Kajura said. “Now they have to be genuinely cognizant that there are sharks as big as them. There was never a problem a generation ago.”

Norman Wald and his wife Estelle of Boca Raton walk on the beach regularly, but they only swim in their pool. While they do so for comfort, they do worry about more shark attacks coming to their waters.

“I used to live up in Massachusetts,” Norman said. “We never worried about shark attacks there, but now I’m hearing reports of attacks there to.”

Changes in fishing regulations and management have also led to an increase in sources in prey in more northern waters, Kajura said.

“We’re seeing more seals than we ever have before,” he said, adding that this contributes to the increase in sharks.

The distribution of sharks across U.S. coastal waters is changing, he said. The combination of all of these factors will almost certainly mean something.

“And I think that’s going to lead to more and more bites,” he warned.

While the odds of encountering a shark aren’t high, Kajura still advises swimmers to be mindful that there could be sharks out there. Floridians in northern areas like Jacksonville and Daytona “where the water’s much murkier” have more of a chance of a shark encounter.

And as the human population grows much faster than the shark population, more people will be on the beaches and the number of encounters will increase.

“And you’ve got muddy water with lots of sharks that are migrating north and it corresponds to this increasing number of bites,” Kajura said.

Surfing season — generally between November and April in Florida — is a time when sharks are dangerous.

“Those are the kinds of bites that are most prevalent,” he said. “That’s what makes Florida the state with the most shark bites in the nation.”

Kajura reminds Palm Beach swimmers to exercise common sense when entering the ocean. Early morning and dusk offer the least visibility.

“That’s when it’s hard to distinguish between a little fish and the sole of your foot,” he said.Also, don’t swim near someone reeling in fish.

“If you see a lot of bait fish jumping in the water, that’s probably a good sign that a predator’s there. Might be tarpon. Might be Jacks. Might be a shark.

“You’re asking for trouble at that point.”

blefever@pbpost.com@blefever10

Safety tips

Swim in a group: Sharks mostly attack when alone.Stay close to the shore: The farther away you are from the beach, the farther away you are from help if a shark does attack.Avoid dawn or dusk swims: These are feeding times for sharks, and they can see you in dark waters more easily than you can see them.Don’t swim if bleeding: Sharks can smell and taste blood.

This story originally published to palmbeachpost.com, and was shared to other Florida newspapers in the GateHouse Media network.

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